Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MESSIANIC WOES

A tumultuous period of eschatological distress and tribulation that, according to early Judaism, was to precede the coming of the Messiah. Characteristic features include apostasy, war, earthquakes, drought, famine, pestilence, familial strife and betrayal, cosmic signs, increasing wickedness, and the scarcity of truth and wisdom. Otherwise known in the rabbinic literature as the “birth pangs of the Messiah,” these woes lead inexorably to the birth of the final state of blessedness.

The concept of messianic woes has OT roots (Isa. 13:6-8; 26:16-19; Jer. 13:21; Mic. 5:2-4[MT 1-3]; 7:1-6), more generally in OT depictions of the trauma associated with the day of the Lord (e.g., Joel 1:15–2:11; 2:30-31[3:3-4]; Zeph. 1:14-18; esp. Dan. 12:1-3).

The messianic woes pattern finds fuller development in the OT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (4 Ezra 5:1-13; 2 Apoc. Bar. 25–32; Jub. 23:13-25; Apoc. Abr. 30:4-8; T. Mos. 8–9), the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QH 3:3-18), the NT, and in patristic (Did. 16:3-6; Herm. Vis. 4.1-2; Barn. 4:3-5) and rabbinic (m. Soṭa 9:15; b. Sanh. 97a-98b; Šabb. 118a; Pesaḥ. 118a; Ketub. 111a) literature.

The Synoptic eschatological discourse (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) offers a striking NT parallel to the Jewish notion of messianic woes (cf. the “beginning of birth pangs,” Matt. 24:8; Mark 13:8), as do the visions of the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls (Rev. 6–16). Numerous other NT texts may also share this same background (e.g., Matt. 10:17-23, 34-36; Rom. 8:17-18; 2 Cor. 4:16-17; 1 Thess. 3:3-5).

In early Judaism, the messianic woes were “messianic” not because the Messiah suffered them, but because these woes were the necessary prelude to the Messiah’s arrival. In light of the Cross, however, early Christians understood that the messianic woes had indeed fallen upon the Messiah himself. As the messianic community, these Christians anticipated that just as the Messiah had suffered eschatological tribulation prior to his resurrection, they also would suffer the messianic woes until their own resurrection at the Messiah’s second coming (Acts 14:22; Phil. 3:10-11; 1 Pet. 4:12-13).

Bibliography. D. C. Allison, Jr., The End of the Ages Has Come: An Early Interpretation of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (Philadelphia, 1985); E. Best, One Body in Christ: A Study in the Relationship of the Church to Christ in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (London, 1955), 130-36; C. Gempf, “The Imagery of Birth Pangs in the New Testament,” TynBul 45 (1994): 119-35; D. S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, 200 b.c.–a.d. 100. OTL (Philadelphia, 1964), 271-76.

Mark Dubis

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MESSIANIC WOES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)